Embossing machines for embossing printing plates increasingly have to be automated in order to be adapted for being separately controlled, for example, as by being connected to an electronic computer or reading apparatus. For this purpose, it is necessary to arrange the passage of the plates through the embossing machine in such a manner that automated feeding and removal of the plates into and out of a plate holder is possible.
Moreover, in some cases it is desired that the plates will be automatically fed one after the other into the embossing machine; however, they should be removable individually in the case where only one printing plate is to be embossed. For instance, in a reception room of a hospital an embossed plate often has to be handed immediately to a patient for identification purposes.